Grenada’s NTF rainy day fund contains approximately EC$40 million

by Linda Straker

• In November 2023, $19 million lodged with Eastern Caribbean Central Bank into NTF
• CBI was Government’s number one revenue earner from January to June 2024
• Special contingency fund contains approximately EC$40 million according to Finance Minister

Grenada’s rainy day or special contingency fund as established by the National Transformation Fund (NTF) regulations, contains approximately EC$40 million according to Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall. “When I last looked at the balance of that fund it is somewhere in the region of just under EC$40 million right now,” he disclosed in a recent interview when asked about the last update on the fund.

While delivering the 2024 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure on 4 December 2023 he told Parliament that as of 30 November 2023, an amount of $19 million had been lodged with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) into that fund.

The money in this special contingency fund is 10% of the monthly inflow of revenue Government has earned from the NTF which contains the money that applicants to the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme pay to Government to become a citizen without investment in an approved project.

The principal or original regulations provided for 40% of the monthly inflow to be put into that contingency fund but it was amended to 10% by the Dickon Mitchell administration. The CBI programme was Government’s number one earner in revenue for the period January to June 2024.

The revenue earned from CBI was EC$247.7 million while Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue Department earned EC$222.6 million and EC$240.3 million respectively.

According to the NTF regulation that fund is managed by a Board of Directors and the money in it can be used to meet the obligation under regulation 9 which states that “In every financial year, the Board shall allocate the first $24 million of payments into the fund to the Consolidated Fund for the sole purpose of payment of budget expenditure arrears.”

The contingency fund can also be used to reduce budget expenditure arrears, to meet the objective of the fund to restructure, repay or repurchase debt, or to provide relief from a national disaster.

Section 13 of the NTF regulations states that the fund shall not be used for the borrowing or taking on of any contingent liability in the form of a guarantee or otherwise: “The Fund shall not be used for the lending of money to the Government of Grenada, any State-Owned Enterprise or any Statutory Body.”